Elon Musk's X has caved to requests from several US Secretaries of State and updated Grok AI to no longer push out misinformation about the 2024 presidential election.
Secretaries of State from Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington confirmed in a press release this week that X had updated Grok to direct anyone who uses election-related terms in their search query to vote.gov for the most up-to-date information, instead of taking matters into its own hands.
"We appreciate X's action to improve their platform and hope they continue to make improvements that will ensure their users have access to accurate information from trusted sources in this critical election year," the Secretaries said. "Elections are a team effort, and we need and welcome any partners who are committed to ensuring free, fair, secure, and accurate elections."
The matter was triggered after screenshots of Grok's responses began surfacing online shortly after US President Joe Biden left the race, claiming the ballot deadline in nine states – the five operated by the quintet included – had already passed, making it impossible for the Democratic Party to change its candidate.
"The false information about ballot deadlines has been captured and shared repeatedly in multiple posts – reaching millions of people," the Secretaries wrote in their early August letter [PDF] to Musk. "Furthermore, Grok continued to repeat this false information for more than a week until it was corrected on July 31, 2024."
Citing an agreement between OpenAI and the National Association of Secretaries of State to direct voters to CanIVote.org when ChatGPT is asked questions about elections, the letter writers asked Musk to ensure Grok did the same thing.
Grok might not be sending folks to the site the Secretaries asked it to, but any concession from someone as stubborn as Musk is a win.
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"Election rules and procedures can vary widely from state to state, and voters should seek out information from their local election officials about who can vote, when they can vote, and how they can vote in their area," the Secretaries who contacted X said. "Websites like Vote.gov and CanIVote.org are also trustworthy resources that can connect voters with their local election officials."
Musk has been facing increasing pressure for posting misleading information that could be viewed as election interference given his considerable reach. More broadly, X has become a hotbed of misinformation and hate speech that's repelled advertisers since Musk took over. Most recently, the billionaire has been pressured to take his role at X more seriously after false claims proliferated on X surrounding right-wing riots in the UK.
With the US government largely touting its election tech as secure, misinformation and disinformation have become primary focuses for government officials in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
It's not clear if Grok will still generate false images or information about elected officials or candidates, another problem it's had of late; questions to X and the Secretaries of State weren't immediately answered.
A group of Democratic lawmakers separately asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week to investigate whether fake images like those generated by Grok amount to actionable fraud.
"Twitter and Elon Musk have the responsibility to implement and require responsible use of its AI technology and, if not, the FEC must urgently step in to prevent further electoral fraud," Ohio representative Shontel Brown said of Grok's potential for misuse. ®